Staying Neutral

Staying Neutral

This past Sunday, Gary and I were in a fellowship, listening to worship music.  It’s all in Spanish!  Yes, the whole service is in Spanish!  We’ve been attending there for months.  I personally, instead of “striving” to understand every word, just simply “take in” what I have learned of Spanish and can comprehend.

The rest of the time, I just enjoy a “quiet spirit” in the Lord and listen to whatever He might be speaking to my heart through the Scriptures they are using for the message.  And…sometimes I read other Scriptures too. 

Sunday, in my quiet moment, the Lord was so REAL when He communicated to my heart once again, the fact that we HAVE the MIND OF CHRIST!

What He desires is for us to “stay neutral” every day of our lives.  What does this means?

It means that WHATEVER has happened in our lives, happening presently, what we THINK about it may or may not bring joy and peace.  This exhortation fits with last week’s devotion about the suffering of lies.

If I will stay neutral about it all and only live by Christ’s Mind, what will happen?

The Scriptures tell us, “the Mind of the Spirit is life and peace.”

Staying neutral is another way of saying “We have died and our life is hidden in Christ in God.”   There are SO many things He wants to teach us that have nothing to do with this present world – we can be bogged down with earthly duties BUT not yet given Him an opportunity to reveal the riches He Himself is to us – even in those earthly duties!  Aha!  Yes, Christ is our LIFE all the time!

And what if we think we’ve messed up with our lives, or really have messed up, what does God have to say about it all now?  Are we living by torment or living by God’s Word of Life for us and to us NOW?  Again, we have the mind of Christ to live and walk by!  Let us believe Him and appropriate!

Also, if I were the richest person in the world with money and its goods, am I really living by this?  When it comes for me to leave this world, what will I really have? 

The riches of knowing Christ Jesus our Lord is what we will carry into eternity!  Let us deeply, deeply think on this.

Christ lives in you and me through His Spirit.  His mind is available every single moment of our day.  We can honestly avail ourselves to Him and He will impart spiritual wisdom and understanding about ALL THINGS.  

We’ll know when it’s Him!  We’ll know!

And He really has some things to show us!  Let us wait and listen!  J

Thinking His Thoughts with you,

Sue Gaither

The Suffering of Lies

The Suffering of Lies

“The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He has anointed Me to preach the Gospel to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed, to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord.”  Luke 4:18, 19

In our present day, more people have been diagnosed with depressive disorders, major mental collapses, and all kinds of conditions needing treatment of some kind.

When I was growing up, I remember a song that meant much to me.  A couple of lines are:

“There’s not a Friend like the lowly Jesus – no not One, no not One.  None else can heal all our soul’s diseases, no not One, no not One…”

Jesus Christ has not changed.  He is still healing broken hearts, setting captives free, and opening eyes to His glorious Self (for He is the Gospel!).

There is a misunderstanding among some that when we come to Christ we don’t have some “soul infirmities” that need His touch.  I’m sure there have been divisions over this.  What then, are we supposed to do?  Pretend we don’t hurt?  Our sufferings are real.  

AND the suffering of lies are real as well.

Actually, I have come to believe and understand it’s the WHO and the HOW we deal with those things that bring real healing.

In my pilgrimage, I know I had some infirmities of my own soul, for sure.  Christ came to live in us forever – He’s not going anywhere.  And He is interested in the genuine renewal of my soul.   Oppressions of mind are varied in each individual.  However, God’s TRUTH is the same for all.

Whatever truly happened to people in their lives cannot be changed.  BUT is this the source of the pain anyway?  Is the true source of my pain merely my belief system which includes what I believe about all that happened to me which produced this pain and continues to produce present suffering?

The sufferings of my life were real and are real.  There were a number of things NOT changed about some of these circumstances.  But I was transformed regarding what I believe about them.  God used my sufferings that I might know Him, and with my heart, “see” this risen, glorious Savior AND TRUST HIM!   There’s so much to “hear” and “know” from our Lord!

And… many of our sufferings were and are self-inflicted due to our NOT knowing Jesus Christ, not following Him and His way.  Yet the sufferings of Christ are different and we can have joy for those things – because He convinces us that the sufferings of THIS WORLD are not WORTHY to be compared with His glory that is coming!

Hebrews says that when we came to Christ our consciences are purged by His blood to serve the living God – in a new and living way.

What does this mean?  It means that our consciences are now BLESSED – experiencing a true washing with His blood, His Truth, His Love, His all. 

What else does this means?  It means I CAN experience a BRAND NEW MIND – A BRAND NEW THINKING and not be driven by lies which produce soul infirmities or emotions that are WHACKED!                           WE HAVE THE MIND OF CHRIST!

Renewal of our minds is nothing more than exchanging all lies for ALL TRUTH and allowing our Lord to give us whatever we need to APPREHEND THE TRUTH.  I am of the persuasion that if one is indeed, “crippled” by emotional hang-ups or distressing mental issues, they can walk with Jesus Christ through those things and come out with His Divine Truth and Touch.   

To put it simply and purely – our Lord can and does change our entire belief system.  He is very personal, intimate.  He is TRUTH.  He is the living Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord!

He has NOT changed.  His heart is to provide for every need – and grant a true answer to all that is going on in our lives and even those things that happened in the past causing us present distress. 

We are called to live and walk by faith (trust) in the Living Lord and by His Word of Life alone.

Paul, the Apostle, had a past – he states it in Phil. 3.  He consented to Stephen’s death – remember?  But then he said this now was all “rubbish” compared to knowing Christ Jesus, His Lord.

Then later in another epistle he describes himself as having a pure conscience.  Now how did that happen?   

Here is his answer to how this pure conscience came to be: He believed God.  And he knew and was coming to know               Jesus Christ! 

May we ask our Lord today to purge our consciences of ALL false beliefs!

Sue Gaither

Spirits Made Alive

Spirits Made Alive

Please notice the word in red in the following:

Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh  which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and  to God the Judge of all, and  to the spirits of just men made perfect,

Imagine that if every human on earth right now were stripped of their “earthly tents” as Paul referred to them, and all we could see were spirits, what then would we see?

First of all, we would see the pronounced difference between sons of God and children of wrath or the sons of disobedience.   

Sons of God are called by God and are literally, “sons of light.” And sons of disobedience are called and are literally, “darkness.”

We shine so brightly, because we are born of God, born of His Spirit, washed in the blood of the Lamb, joined to His Spirit by the work of regeneration and baptism into Christ.  The list is endless.

Not only this, but we are literally CLOTHED with the Lord Jesus Christ, His righteousness, His Divine Nature, His all!

We are ALL spirits dwelling in mortal flesh.  For the believer, our spirit WILL BE clothed soon with immortality – a body that is glorified and eternal, just as our spirits already are!

As a reminder, what is a son of disobedience?  Simply put, a person who has rejected God’s Gospel concerning His remedy and provision for redemption, eternal life and forgiveness of all sins.  His name is Christ Jesus.

Well then, can there really be different religions in sight of our Holy God?  This can be answered only by the Word of God in the face of Jesus Christ, His sufferings, His blood, His cross, His resurrection, His Life.

What religion or ritual imparts life to a dead spirit?

There is nothing or no one WHO can impart life – eternal life to a dead spirit except one Person: 

Jesus Christ. 

He is the only Authority in heaven and earth who is God’s provision for the spirit being made alive.  Else the spirit is dead and in darkness. 

We, as believers, are not growing in His life through religion or ritual no more than a plant grows by religion or ritual.  Life comes from a Person.  His Life abundantly is in our spirits.  Praise God! He Himself is growing in our spirits.  And we are NOT independent of Him either!  Branches abiding in the VINE!

If we would begin to realize we are indeed, spirits inside mortal flesh right now, instead of thinking we are simply physical creatures alone, we perhaps would pay more attention to our inner man and not the outer man.  Not to say we should not take care of the outer but to realize just as the Scriptures say, the outer man is decaying – returning to dust.

Ya’ll, this is just remarkable.  Our spirits, who are light in the Lord, shines through these jars!  AND the living Person of Christ, through His Spirit dwells in our hearts!

You’ve heard this before:  What can we take with us when we leave this earth?  We obviously know: none of the worlds or earthly goods will be going – only the spirit of a person. 

Oh what a manner people we can be then, cultivating the riches of Christ inside our hearts!  And this is not to say we are not responsible for our earthly endeavors here on earth while we are here!

We just simply need to be reminded as to WHO we are while we are here – and if we give heed, we can have greater impact.  Could this have a greater impact while we do our earthy endeavors?

Hebrews says that heaven is filled with spirits of just men made perfect.  These are all the saints who left this earth to ascend to the heavens where Christ is literally – they’ve been taken out of the body claimed by physical death.  We will all experience this at some point, if our Lord does not return first.

So, as we go out today – let us NOT look on the natural of men/people – the outside of them – BUT let us trust God to seek to build up the heart/spirits of believers with TRUTH – with all that is eternal.  And also, to give the LIGHT of the GLORIOUS GOSPEL to dead spirits needing Eternal Life found in our Lord Jesus Christ!

We are already dwelling in the heavenly places with Christ through the Spirit, through communion with Him, fellowship with God and His Son, by prayer and the feeding of the Scriptures – the TRUTH.

We are a BLESSED people.  One day the whole world will literally SEE the true sons of God, appearing with Christ in glory.  And the Holy Spirit bears witness with our spirits that we are children of God and that all this is true!

Shining in Him with you,

Sue Gaither